ST. LOUIS (KSDK) – An AMBER alert that many local residents received Monday night after the missing child has posed many questions about the process behind these alerts.

Officials with the Missouri Highway Patrol say it's a complicated process. St. Louis County Police had to investigate the disappearance, and ultimately provided the necessary information for the alert two hours after the crime transpired – once they determined they had met the criteria to issue an AMBER Alert.

The Missouri Highway Patrol then had to feed that information to the AMBER Alert Portal, which broads the information via text alerts. That was approved at 10:15 p.m. St. Louis city police found one-year-old Tristian Readye inside a missing car on Illinois Avenue at around that time.